New poster here, longtime South Philly LCN follower though, from the days we saw a lot of the current guys mentioned here in the clubs. Curious as to what the experts here think about what happens if Joey Merlino goes away for 5 or 10 years on his current charge. Here's some scenarios:

1. Joey keeps his crown and gets some money either through Uncle Joe (a little long in the tooth these days) or through Stevie Mazzone, who would probably be happy no one in LE targets him as boss; nothing else changes.

2. One of the others among the Merlino era guys, like Mickey Lance or George Borgesi, tries to take the top spot by combination of muscle and money--buying off guys like the Changs and the Mazzones. Maybe kicks up to Merlino, maybe not. And a guy like Borgesi probably doesn't give a shit if the feds think he's in charge. Lancelotti probably is too smart to screw up what seems to be the best career in all of LCN...

3. An old-school guy like Narducci or Joey Pung makes a move for the crown, either by whacking one or more of Merlino's allies or by refusing to kick up and seeing if there's any response--if not, then its effectively a free-for-all on the street in terms of who collects from whom; and plus maybe one of these guys makes an alliance with the Dominicans or the Russians or the South Asians, all of whom are making probably more money than they are, drugs-wise...

4. Merlino promotes some of the young guys--Baby Dom Grande, the younger brothers Mazzone and Borgesi, the younger Lancellotti to form a new buffer around him as guys like Uncle Joe and Mikey Lance and the Changs retire or go completely legit?